Facts about the 7 continents

This week in geography we learnt about the 7 different continents and learnt facts about all the 7 continents. We used fact cards, atlases and topic books to help.

Photography

Last week and this week during our computing sessions we have been developing photography skills, thinking about keeping the photo in focus and deciding whether a photo is better taken in landscape or portrait.

Music

This term we are having a break from penny whistle lessons, this week we explored the glockenspiels. We identified the pulse in a piece of music and then tried to play along with a simple piece of music.

Moving around the apparatus

This week in our gymnastics session we explored different ways of moving over the apparatus

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Climates around the world

This week we have been learning about hot, cold and warm climates around the world. We located North and South pole regions in relation to the equator. Children then used an atlas to locate countries in a cold, hot and warm climate on the map. Some children completed world jigsaws and some children traced a world map.

Colour mixing

Class 2 has been exploring colour mixing, they have made colour wheels and then used the skills that they learnt through this to create concentric circle art work. They have created some very effective pieces of art work.

National Year of Reading 2026!

 

Hodnet School is excited to embrace the National Year of Reading in 2026.

 

What is the National Year of Reading?

The National Year of Reading is a UK wide campaign by the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust. The campaign’s theme is ‘Go All In’ meaning read about things that really matter to you. Whether it’s sport, music, fashion so something else, if people ‘go all in’ on a topic, the hope is that they will enjoy what they are reading and do it more.

 

Why is this the National Year of Reading?

Studies have shown that reading is connected to lots of lifelong benefits, including wellbeing and confidence, and improving writing and conversation skills. Unfortunately, reading for pleasure among young people is at its lowest for 20 years. We need our young people to read in order to improve their own life chances, both in education and the workplace.

 

Is reading just about books?

Definitely not! The National Year of Reading is promoting all types of reading including comics, magazines, online blogs, e-readers, instruction manuals and audiobooks. The campaign wants everyone to read in a way that works for them.

 

What is happening during the National Year of Reading?

Throughout 2026, there will be lots of events across the UK. At Hodnet School, Mrs Bessant has created a calendar of events to ensure that we enjoy a reading event every month of 2026.

National Year of Reading Calendar

Our first event is ‘Reading Resolutions’ – allowing our children to set a reading goal for the year. This could be about trying a new format of reading or perhaps trying a new author or genre.

The Department for Education want children and families to read for at least 10 minutes every day and Hodnet School we want that for our children as well. How amazing would it be if we could all achieve that goal!

Living and non living

We have started a new unit of science learning this half term about living things. We learnt about Mrs Gren who helps us to remember all the life processes and we also looked at: living, not living any longer and has never been alive. Miss Manton put a selection of items on our table and asked us to sort them according to whether they were: living, not living any longer and have never been alive.

Grouping and writing the expressions

We have been working on grouping again this week in maths sessions, writing the multiplication expressions for this.

Photography

Today we kicked off our photography unit in computing in forest schools. We worked in pairs to take six photos: an insect, a tree, a close up, an action shot, a photo of the distance and a group selfie. We talked about how to make this photographs successful, children took photos on the i pads, looked through what we had taken and then took more if we were not happy with the quality of the photos we had taken.